Transcription
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Hi, it's Robin Sharma. Thank you for being here with me. I'm in one of my writing cottages. This is about the five Super Habits for Supreme Health. Let's get right into the first one, which is breathing.
When we are born, we are born into excellent breathing. We breathe from our stomach. We breathe deeply. We breathe properly. And as the ancient sages used to say, to breathe properly is to live properly. When you breathe properly, you calm down your system, you oxygenate your blood, you promote vitality, energy, and longevity.
As we go through life and get older and deal with the stresses and strains of being an adult, especially in this digital age where so many of us are addicted to distraction, pro tip: an addiction to distraction is the death of your creative production. So, in this modern era that we inhabit, there is a lot of stress. And what that does is it causes us to breathe very superficially. And when we breathe very lightly, we don't get the health benefits, and we go into a situation where it's a lytic hijack. The amygdala is activated, and we do not have the benefits of breathing in a healthy way.
So, the first habit is to develop some kind of breathwork practice every single day. It might be alternate nostril breathing. It might be autogenic training. It was created by a German doctor in the '20s. You can read about it. You close your eyes. You breathe into different parts of your body. It's really stress relief. It's almost a form of mindfulness training. It's very powerful.
The point I simply want to offer to you is work on being a deeper, healthier, better breather. The second super habit for Supreme Health might surprise you. And before I leave the idea about breathing, I want to remind you about the legends of the Samurai. Before they would go into war, they would have a feather on their lip. And the great masters would look at the young Samurai. And if the feather was not moving too quickly, because the Samurai had trained themselves to be calm in terms of their breathing, in terms of their spirituality, in terms of their mindset, then the great master would say, "You are fine. You can go into battle."
The second super habit for Supreme Health might surprise you, but it's chanting. When you chant, I mean, the great monks, what would they do at 5:00 AM in the monastery, high in the mountains? Sure, they would meditate, but they would often chant. Did you know that chanting activates the vagus nerve? When you activate the vagus nerve, you relax. You become more still. You become more vital. You extend your lifespan.
I'm not going to spend a lot of time on chanting. I simply suggest that as part of your morning practice, even three or four minutes of chanting. It could be an affirmation around prosperity. It could be an affirmation or a mantra around vitality. It could be a statement that will remind you as you go through the day to be productive versus distracted, or kind versus mean.
Super habit number three for Supreme Health is fasting. There is a lot of great research coming out on the benefits of what's known as caloric restriction. I simply want to encourage you, at least once a week, go OMAD, one meal a day. At least once a week, just eat one meal. Now, here's the pro tip: take the food that you would have eaten during that day where you're fasting and give it to someone in need. That will not only increase your vitality, your Supreme Health, it will also uplift the life of someone you need. So you both rise.
Fasting puts your body into a state of autophagy. Autophagy. Autophagy is a process that happens when you stress the body a little. And when you stress the body a little, it's called hormesis. So you stress the body a little, not enough so there's a problem, but a little bit of stress through fasting. What that does is it activates a series of cellular processes, such as autophagy, which cleanse toxins from your cells, which repair cellular damage. And that, in turn, increases your vitality, your overall wellness, and it even increases your longevity.
Super habit number four is sunbathing. Too much sun is carcinogenic, we all know that. But the right amount of sun, let's say 20 minutes a day, promotes the production of vitamin D. Sunbathing is wonderful in moderation. You've got to be reasonable about it. But too many people don't get enough sun, and that definitely decreases their positivity because vitamin D affects your moods. Not enough sunshine affects your spirituality because you just sort of feel a little darker and lower. And as I'm suggesting, in moderation, sunbathing is just great for your overall health.
And that brings me to super habit number five, one of my favorite ones, which is walking in nature. The Japanese have a term which can be translated from Japanese into English to "forest bath." Yes, the Japanese understand the power of walking in nature and forest bathing. I want you to embrace habit number five, which is just walking in the woods, or walking in the desert, or walking by the mountains, or walking next to the sea.
But when we walk in natural environments, what happens is there is a promotion of a pharmacy of master within our brains. All these neurotransmitters which make us feel better, like serotonin. By walking in nature, we also get some sunshine. We also can breathe more deeply. By walking in nature, our problems seem smaller. By walking in nature, you're getting more exercise. And exercise is a game-changer for a world-class life. And walking in nature connects you to something larger than yourself. It's great for your spirit. It's great for your life.
So that's the five Super Habits for Supreme Health. I hope you'll practice them because remember, no idea works unless you do the work. An ideation without execution amounts to a delusion. Thank you for being here with me in your habit camp. This 66-day program where you commit to your keystone habit, that one big habit, that one habit that will lift every other habit along with your three secondary habits. It could be one of these five Super Habits I've offered to you, so that over 66 days, you get to a whole new level of your lifestyle, of your productivity, of your performance, your prosperity, and the way you live out the rest of your days.
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